Photos: Bam Quake Victims, Nine Years After

On December 26, 2003, 6.5 magnitude quake hit the city of Bam in the southern province of Kerman, Iran. The quake killed 32,000 people, flattened 70% of Bam's buildings and equally devastated the nearby town of Baravat and 260 area villages. Bam Citadel (or Arg-e-Bam) was reduced from a stunning byzantine garrison, visited by more than 100,000 people yearly, to a canyon of pulverized rubble not much different than the other treeless, rock-strewn mountains that delineate the central Iranian plateau from the southern desert.

The quake damaged or destroyed 42,000 housing units, rendering some 200,000 people homeless. Nine years later, the promises of the officials to provide housing for the quake victims hasn't been fulfilled yet. There are still people who are living in temporary housing in primitive conditions deprived of basic necessities.